HKU voyeur admits theft, drug possession

A salesman found with drugs, women's clothing and a hidden camera in a female toilet stall at the University of Hong Kong has pleaded guilty to theft and drug-related charges.

Lee Hung-fat, 31, admitted yesterday at Eastern Court that in September he had stolen a laptop computer and memory stick, and had the drug Ice and apparatus for smoking it when he was found in the toilet.

The case has been adjourned to January 19 for sentencing pending background and addiction treatment centre reports. Lee has been remanded in custody until then. The court had refused bail because of fears he might reoffend.

He was discovered on September 29 in a stall for the disabled in the women's toilets on the fourth floor of the Knowles Building, with the laptop, memory stick, women's clothing, 0.36 grams of Ice and a plastic bottle with a straw for inhaling it. A pinhole video camera with a battery was found behind some mothballs in another women's toilet cubicle.

Lee had stolen the black Fujitsu laptop worth HK$20,000 and the 4GB memory stick worth HK$200 from a woman who was using the stall two weeks earlier.

In November, the court withdrew a charge of committing an act outraging public decency by installing the camera. Lee has eight previous convictions, including for acts outraging public decency and loitering, mostly on the university's property.